The three-year-old Samruddhi couldn’t understand why her father was so devastated when he first came to see her; she believes her mother will come to meet her soon

The Diva-Sawantwadi train accident victim not only lost her mother, but her lower left leg had to be amputated due to severe injuries. Almost two weeks after the mishap that claimed the lives of 19 people and injured more than 100 other commuters, the young girl, a Panvel resident, still hasn’t been informed about her mother’s demise.

What is even more heartbreaking for her relatives is that she has been constantly asking them where her mother is, but only to be given the false hope that she is on her way to meet her.

She has two sisters five-year-old Janhavi, who sustained severe head injuries in the accident and is currently admitted in MGM Hospital, Vashi, and a three-month-old sister, who is in the care of relatives in Roha. When this correspondent visited Samruddhi, she kept repeating the words ‘aai’ (mother) and ‘tai’ (sister) while interacting with her kin.

“How can we tell such a small girl that she will never see her mother again? She misses her sisters and mother a lot. On top of that, she is experiencing a lot of pain in her left leg and during the night, she keeps crying, wishing they were with her,” said Sandesh Nakti, a relative.

Her father, Jairam, a daily wage labourer, who is also admitted at the civic-run hospital, was kept in the dark about his wife’s death and daughter’s amputation. Dr Sulaiman Merchant, head of the radiology department, broke the news to him on Tuesday.

“No one in the family wanted to break the news to him, so I spent an hour with the father, explaining what had happened. I had to spend quite some time to help stabilise him before he started to come to terms with it,” said Dr Merchant.

His relatives said Jairam spent the entire night crying before he visited his daughter in the ward for the first time. “He broke down on seeing her leg and we had to take him back to his ward, as Samruddhi wasn’t able to understand why her father was so devastated. We are glad the doctor helped us, as none of us could break the news to Jairam,” added his kin Sandesh.

Jairam, at first, insisted he wanted to go back to his village to be a part of his wife’s last rites ceremony, but his relatives persuaded him to stay back due to his injuries. Samruddhi will need at least three to four prosthetic legs after her left leg was amputated below her knee. Doctors say that due to her age and growth, her prosthesis will have to be changed every few years.

“The amount will run up to Rs 30 lakh for her prostheses alone. Other than her treatment, the three sisters’ future needs to be secured following this mishap, for which I am looking for more private donors,” added Dr Merchant.

Dr Avinash Supe, the hospital’s dean, said that various donors have so far given Rs 2.5 lakh to help the child, while several other citizens have personally met the hospital authorities and donated smaller amounts, between Rs 100-Rs 500.

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